Long Excepting Poems

Rejection Slips 3

Rejection Slip
by Michael R. Burch

Whenever my writing gets rejected,
I always wonder how the rejecter got elected.
Are we exchanging at the same Bourse?
(Excepting present company, of course!)

When editors reject my poems, did I slip...

Read More

Rejection Slips

With over 5,700 publications if I count poems that have gone viral, I suppose I shouldn’t complain … but I do have some poems that have never been accepted for publication. Here are a...

Read More

"The Crow Bar"

she said,
here I bury my dead,
you can hear them sleeping
somnulent forget-me-nots,
snoring blithely unaware,
in neat rows between 
the thick,
ink injected lines,
their soiled lives
ploughed and 
turned over 
replanted
sunnyside down
expunged and 
wrung out

eventually,
not totally oblivious, 
they...

Read More

While returning home from my job, in bustling New York City,
The blaring horns of traffic, and the noise were getting to me.

With loud yelling on the sidewalks, and cawing crows up above,
And my poor aching...

Read More

Herpetologist meets actress (Cameron Diaz).
If he's funny he's me.
South America or Africa (on location).
In a diamond mind.
The protagonists (lovers), the diamonds, the miners and the minders.
By minders we mean watchers, organizers, supervisors.
As all art must:...

Read More

"Universe to each must be
All that is, including me.
Environment in turn must be
All that is, excepting me."
       Buckminster Fuller

Evolving Universe to each must become
All integrity that is, including me.
Revolving...

Read More

* Examples for the contest

Jack and Jill (the real story)

"Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a pail of water
Jack fell down and broke his crown and Jill came tumbling after..."

Of course, neither...

Read More

Unquotable quotes: Writers – XXXVIII

     for Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra and Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoieski  
     who let not even hope sustain them and who used their...

Read More

Moisture on a mirror
(A story of PTSD)
03/12/16
As I look back on my life. 
I know there is a much sadness and a conflict that I did not understand.
Many hours searching for answers that affected my...

Read More

                                  ...

Read More

I dwelt once in a dreamy town, my land was alongside the border,
In a region of natural beauty, next to a crystalline body of water.

From the jade hills of my land, I could clearly see...

Read More

I resided in a beautiful old home, on the sunny side of the street;
And I had friendly neighbors, offering hellos whenever we'd meet.

Often when I was off from work, I puttered in my house or...

Read More

IF EVER I HAD A COUNTRY : LXXVI

IF ever I had a Country with or without any " Wood " in the aching aping Film Industry
And if ever (you know the refrain by now) I...

Read More

Today, this black oak forest will become my grave. 

A crow caws in the distance and I swear it is calling my name. I have never believed in omens or curses but perhaps there are...

Read More

Politics what does this even mean?
We watch these debates but truth isn't seen
We see one empty promise after another
We see deception between each democratic,diplomatic brother
foreign policy border control stirring controversy
yet Americans being beheaded on the...

Read More

What can I say as I listen
To slow jazz and ease back in time
What can I say man, i will be missing
Some should a been reunions , that's a crime.

Wish I wasn't writing this epitaph
...

Read More

from crude beginnings came primitive man
learning to cope with natures darkened wilderness,
wild plants,wild animals,wild environment,and
day to day uncertain productiveness...

an animal by nature,commuting the body with inferior things,
sticks and stones became weapons and tools
the processed skills,from...

Read More

The caring bridge was very unexpected 
why I'd survived a horrific traumatic 
brain injury an yet my mind was desperate 
to learn everything all over I was so 
excited when I noticed my flaws while...

Read More

love in the eye of a perfect stranger
must we keep on in weakness
how long will it take us 
to weak up 
are we not done yet 
in this pit of poverty 
must we be always...

Read More

My heart is depleting, it is becoming thin and fragile.
I can feel it slowly crumbling. 
The pieces have started falling to the floor. 
They instantly shatter.
I try to pick them up,
yet my fingers are sliced...

Read More

Rejection Slips 4

Editor's Notes
by Michael R. Burch
 
Eat, drink and be merry
(tomorrow, be contrary).
 
( and complain
in bad refrain,
but please, not till I'm on the plane!)
 
Write no poem before its time
(in your case, this...

Read More

Thank you for coming into my life,
For making me smile,
For brightening up my days.
Thank you for understanding me,
For listening to my words,
And everything I had to say.
Thank you for all the encouraging words
That you always...

Read More

Conquistador, Translation of Paul Verlaine’s tercets : Conquistador

Message to fellow soupers: I have been trying to upload, in vain, yet another translation of a 
 Paul Verlaine poem titled: "Ballade in favour of those called...

Read More

Have you met, good old Grandma Goodie, Goodie,
With her gingerbread house of sweets emporium,
Tasty treats unwholesome to eat, but oh in pleasures
Indulgence, she corners the market, the bitter,
To the sweet, with her delicious confectionery delights.
Skip,...

Read More

Were going to the Florida Keys! Were going to Florida Keys!
As I mentioned we were on our way to the Florida Keys... 
it was my mother, father, my sisters and me the brother of the...

Read More